What does a neuropsych evaluation look like?

[Anonymous]

My 9 year old is getting a neuropsych evaluation soon at Kennedy Krieger. I'm curious what kind of tests/exercises they will do? If you talk to DC, he will tell you his schoolwork is fine and his homework is fine though that is not at all the reality. He also hyperfocuses when he's interested in something but when he's not he daydreams until the clock runs out. I'm worried that based on less than a day of observation they're not going to get a good picture of what the issues might be. DC is pretty good at telling doctors what they want to hear. How (if at all) do these evaluations control for this kind of thing?

[Anonymous]

Ours was over the course of three days. Six hours one day, and blocks of three hours the two other days. Lots of tests given to my son. Lots of forms I had to fill out, and his teachers had to fill out a ton of them too.

When I read the report, it noted that my son said he felt he was doing just fine at certain things, while his teachers and I said the exact opposite. So they take that into account. They are also asking many questions verbally, or watching as they try to solve logic problems. They can tell if a child gets distracted doing certain activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 9 year old is getting a neuropsych evaluation soon at Kennedy Krieger. I'm curious what kind of tests/exercises they will do? If you talk to DC, he will tell you his schoolwork is fine and his homework is fine though that is not at all the reality. He also hyperfocuses when he's interested in something but when he's not he daydreams until the clock runs out. I'm worried that based on less than a day of observation they're not going to get a good picture of what the issues might be. DC is pretty good at telling doctors what they want to hear. How (if at all) do these evaluations control for this kind of thing?

OP - you may find this helpful

https://www.kennedykrieger.org/research/centers-labs-cores/center-for-neurodevelopmental-and-imaging-research/information-for-parents-what-to-expect


I think the KKI evaluation may be less comprehensive (I'm sure I'll be corrected if wrong). DS had an assessment at KKI 10 years ago, this was on the heels of a 3 day long neuropsych eval with a private psychologist. The reason we went to KKI was to get a second opinion on the first evaluation.

We had a great experience at KKI, but it was totally different from what DS experienced with the private psychologist.

[Anonymous]

Also, the report. Ours wasn't from KKI, it was from mindwell, but it was 40 pages long. 40. Sit with that for a second. Lots of strengths, lots of weaknesses and how to approach educating this child. It's a lot to take in. I one-pagered it for myself and for use with teachers, 504/ and failed IEP meetings.

[Anonymous]

We did ours with Mindwell. It was CLEAR that my DC was dyslexic, but we needed to hear the words from the neuro's mouth. They had her read some passages, draw some pictures and guess the sequence of numbers and pictures. They had her write, do some basic math problems, spelling and look at "made up words like ip, pd, sw to see if DC could decode the letters. There were lots of breaks. Teh report was complete, but I don't think I agree with EVERY thing in the report. I think everything is subjective and only gave us a snapshot in time of how DC did that morning for 5 hours. We answered a TON of scantron questions. I think the debrief really only focused on DC weaknesses (low working memory, etc.) and none of her strengths. I give it a solid "meh". The neuropsych person was very clinical and not warm, and focused on negative after negative after negative. I left there really gutted and cried. Tho I got the basic picture from them and realized how to interpret what they said later (aka need OG tutoring, more time, etc.).

[Anonymous]

The length and scope of the evaluation also depends on what the issues the child is having.

Some cases are more complex than others. If that is the case for your child don't be surprised if you get a referral to another specialist or recommendation to pursue additional testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The length and scope of the evaluation also depends on what the issues the child is having.

Some cases are more complex than others. If that is the case for your child don't be surprised if you get a referral to another specialist or recommendation to pursue additional testing.

This exactly. WE told the neuropsych person to eliminate all the "autism" type-tests b/c that's not what we were testing for. Shortened the testing day considerably. Tho not every neuropsych person will eliminate them. IT also didn't make the price any cheaper when we eliminated the tests. Good luck!